I am particularly pleased to recognize the creation of a vibrant, new Education Alumni Association under the leadership of Bud Jacobs (M.A. '77). The EAA evolved out of a series of intense focus groups and programs held throughout last spring and summer. Many alumni participated. This year's significant increase in programming, attendance and support for the School are the direct result of your involvement, and I want to thank you all.
In these pages as well you will see highlighted in the article on the digital libraries workshop and the "Opinion" column by Associate Professor Leah A. Lievrouw, the promise and potential of the School merger. Concrete programmatic examples will continue to be highlighted in future issues of the Forum.
By the way, the "Opinion" column belongs to you. We hope to use it as a true forum to engage alumni, friends, faculty and students in dialogue with the School. Please send us your opinions, thoughts and comments about your work, the field, our School and its activities, or anything else that's on your mind. (We accept communication both in column and letter form!) We look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes,
TED MITCHELL
Dean Mitchell released the following letter as the Forum went to press.
March 1966
Dear GSE&IS Alumni & Friends,
The next seventeen months will be a time of unprecedented change at UCLA. Chancellor Young's decision to retire has removed the one fixed star in the campus constellation. Twenty-seven years of continuous leadership does tend to make relationships, networks, and structures fairly stable. The Chancellor has been a generous supporter of the efforts of the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, and we will be working to cultivate similar sympathies in the campus' next leader. In the meantime, it will be important to position the School institutionally in a way that maximizes our presence and impact.
Bearing these issues in mind, the Chancellor has asked me to take on additional responsibilities during the remaining months of his tenure. Specifically, he has asked me to serve as Vice Chancellor for Academic Planning and Budget and as his Special Assistant between now and July 1, 1997. After much deliberation, soul-searching and conversation with colleagues, and in thinking about the period of transition to come and the School's place in it, I have accepted these new assignments.
While I will be on leave as Dean, I will remain involved in the School at a strategic level. Associate Dean Eva Baker has graciously agreed to assume additional administrative duties; together with Department Chairs Harold Levine and Christine Borgman, she will lead the School in the 1996-97 academic year. Though these appointments are effective April 1, 1996, the Spring quarter will serve as a transition period, and I will begin my work in Murphy Hall on June 1. I will relinquish the Vice Chancellorship on June 30, 1997 and return to full-time service as Dean.
On a personal note, this has not been an easy decision for me to make. As a School, we are engaged in exciting work together, internally and externally, and selfishly I want to be a part of it every day. On the other hand, this is an opportunity toamp; learn about the university from a new vantage point. Finally, this is an opportunity for GSE&IS to be represented centrally at a particularly important time. In the end, this was a major factor in my decision.
I want to thank you for your involvement with our School and look forward to your continuing support of our faculty and students. We are engaged in a wide range of important research and professional development activities that have critical implications for the future of education and information studies. If you do not already know Eva Baker, you will have the pleasure of meeting and working with an outstanding leader and scholar.
Sincerely,
Theodore R. Mitchell
Return to Spring 1996, vol. 1, no. 1 Issue
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